Miss  AGNES  MORGAN. 


Miss  Agnes  Morgan  was  born  at  Watson, 
Atchison  county,  Mo.,  April  26,  1868.  Her 
parents  were,  in  a  way,  pioneers  to  the 
new  West,  of  which  Missouri  was  then  a 
part,  as  Miss  Morgan’s  family  came  direct 
from  Tennessee  to  Northwest  Missouri 
when  she  was  a  little  girl,  and  Mr.  Mor¬ 
gan’s  family  left  Kentucky  when  he  was  a 
t  little  boy,  and  went  first  to  Illinois  and 
then  to  Missouri. 

At  the  time  of  her  birth,  shortly  after 
the  Civil  war,  the  country  was  still  new. 
The  year  she  was  born  the  first  railway, 
the  first  hotel  and  church  (Cumberland 
Pres.)  were  built  at  what  was  afterward  the 
town  of  Watson.  So  she  is  a  westerner, 
with  pioneer  blood  and  spirit  in  her  veins. 

There  had  been  no  preachers  or  mis¬ 
sionaries  in  either  family,  but  most  people 
were  religiously  inclined  those  days  and 
all  the  children  in  her  family  were  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  church  at  an  early  age. 

A  cousin  of  her  mother’s  became  their 


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pastor  when  she  was  about  eight  years  old 
and  his  wife  immediately  organized  a  mis¬ 
sion  band  for  the  children,  where  she  and 
her  sister  received  their  first  knowledge 
of  mission  work. 

Insensibly  the  atmosphere  this  devoted 
woman  made  for  them,  interested  them  in 
world  wide  work  for  Christ,  but  Miss  Mor¬ 
gan’s  older  sister  was  perhaps  conscious 
very  early  of  a  personal  interest  in  church 
work,  judging  from  her  later  attitude.  As 
for  Miss  Morgan,  she  says  she  doubts  if 
she  ever  would  have  thought  of  becoming  a 
missionary  of  her  own  accord. 

At  the  ages  of  thirteen  and  fifteen,  the 
two  sisters  entered  college  at  Lincoln  Uni¬ 
versity,  Ill.,  the  nearest  church  school, 
and  here  their  interest  in  church  work 
grew  somewhat,  though  not  very  percep¬ 
tibly  along  active  lines.  Miss  Morgan 
says:  “In  fact,  we  were  so  satisfied  with 
study  and  so  preferred  a  life  of  simple 
pleasures  and  fixed  hours,  that  we  did  not 
even  approve  of  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  and  could 
not  be  induced  to  join  it.  Of  course,  we 
were  younger  than  most  of  the  students.” 

One  of  their  Professors  was  Dr.  D.  M. 
Harris,  well  known  in  the  Cumberland 
Pres,  church,  and  his  wife,  also  well  known 
later  as  “Cousin  Carrie.”  She  got  Miss 


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Morgan  into  primary  S.  S.  work  in  her 
second  year  in  college,  where  as  she  ex¬ 
presses  it,  she  was  “a  babe  teaching  babes.” 

How  the  thought  of  becoming  a  mis¬ 
sionary  first  came  to  be  talked  of  between 
the  sisters  is  hazy  in  Miss  Morgan’s  mind. 
Her  sister,  being  the  older,  had  naturally 
done  most  of  the  thinking  for  the  two  in 
matters  of  importance,  and  she  herself  had 
been  content  in  doing  what  was  planned 
for  her.  They  took  it  for  granted  also  that 
they  would  both  be  together,  so  when  her 
sister  proposed  that  they  should  be  mis¬ 
sionaries,  she  never  thought  of  objecting, 
and  in  1884,  Mrs.  D.  M.  Harris  brought 
their  names  before  the  Women’s  Board 
Convention,  and  from  that  time,  they  were 
its  v  wards. 

As  the  idea  of  being  a  missionary  be¬ 
came  more  and  more  fixed,  and  she  under¬ 
stood  more  of  what  it  involved,  she  says 
the  'prospect  was  not  in  the  least  alluring. 
She  liked  study  and  reading,  but  did  not 
enjoy  teaching,  though  she  taught  both  in 
public  schools  and  private  music  pupils, 
but  she  much  preferred  housework. 

She  was  sorry  for  people  who  did  not 
know  about  the  true  God  and  Christ’s 
teachings,  but  she  was  sure  she  could 
never,  never  be  a  useful  teacher,  even  if 


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she  should  ever  learn  to  use  her  tongue  in 
a  foreign  language,  which  was  doubtful,  as, 
like  Moses,  she  had  a  heavy  tongue  in  her 
own ! 

But  her  sister  wanted  to  go,  and  she 
could  teach  all  right,  and  if  she  went, 
Miss  Mprgan  must  go,  too.  She  was,  in 
a  way,  an  indispensable  member  of  the 
pair,  as  her  sister  was  not  very  strong,  so 
she  might  be  able  to  do  some  things  that 
did  not  require  much  talking. 

At  this  point  she  says:  “I  was  ashamed 
to  say  that  I  really  did  not  want  to  go,  and 
actually  afraid  to  look  at  the  subject 
squarely  and  clearly  for  fear  my  courage 
would  fail  but  I  honestly  did  want  to  do 
whatever  the  Father  willed.”  Her  own 
prayer  was  that  some  hindrance  be  put  in 
the  way  of  her  going  if  she  was  not  called 
to  the  work.  She  had  always  felt  that  in 
the  end,  she  was  sure  to  like  whatever  she 
ought  to  do. 

In  the  course  of  time,  it  was  decided  that 
the  sisters  should  go  to  Japan  in  the  fall 
of  1S89.  They  were  young — only  twenty- 
one  and  twenty-three — and  the  world  was 
larger  then  than  it  is  now — much  larger! 

Then  came  another  trial.  Their  mother 
was  seriously  ill  that  summer  and  the  doc¬ 
tors  said  she  might  live  for  years  or  might 


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be  taken  suddenly  any  time.  There  were 
two  young-  brothers,  eight  and  twelve, 
ought  they  be  left?  The  mother  said  noth¬ 
ing  to  detain  them.  She  had  consented  to 
their  going  and  though  they  knew  it  was 
hard  for  her,  they  were  a  family  of  few 
words,  especially  where  their  feelings  were 
strongest.  Again  she  prayed  to  be  hin¬ 
dered  if  she  ought  not  go.  But  no  hin¬ 
drance  came  and  they  left  home  in  Nov., 
1889,  and  reached  Japan  safely. 

Mrs.  Morgan  is  still  alive  and  Miss  Mor¬ 
gan  has  been  home  twice  to  see  her.  Her 
sister's  health  was  not  equal  to  the  climate 
and  at  the  end  of  her  fourth  year,  she  went 
home  to  stay,  while  Miss  Morgan  was  left. 

She,  the  one  whose  idea  it  was  to  go 
and  who  entered  into  the  work  with  all 
hope  and  confidence,  was  not  to  continue, 
and  Miss  Morgan,  the  passive,  the  willing 
to  be  hindered,  the  fearful  and  doubtful,  is 
still  there  twenty  years  later.  And  she 
says:  “I  enjoyed  every  part  of  my  work 
from  the  start,  and  never  thought  of  giv¬ 
ing  up  when  my  sister  had  to  return,  and 
I  firmly  believe  that  I  am  safe  in  leaving 
my  path  to  God,  as  I  did  twenty  years  ago, 
to  lead  me  where  He  will,  for  He  knows 
the  future.” 


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The  Board  today  has  no  better  mission¬ 
ary  on  the  field  than  is  Miss  Morgan.  Her 
influence,  and  that  of  the  Wilmina  Girls 
School,  of  which  she  is  the  head,  is  felt 
throughout  the  ‘‘Flowery  Kingdom.” 


\ 

Published  by  the 

WOMAN’S  PRESBYTERIAN  BOARD  OF  FOREIGN 
MISSIONS  OF  THE  SOUTHWEST, 

708  Odd  Fellows’  Building, 

St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Price  5  cents  per  single  Sketch. 
Series  of  fourteen  Sketches. 


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